president bush in 2008 and expanded under president obama in 2009. in doing so, the government did lose billions. but can you call the bailout a success? let's take a look at some of the numbers. at one time gm was nicknamed government motors by critics. some people like me said as gm goes, so goes the obama presidency. the government stake in the auto giant totaled 60.8% at the height of the bailout. about 912 million shares. treasury began selling those shares to gm when gm went public. again, post bankruptcy some 2010. now, on monday treasury secretary jack lew said the government has recovered $39 billion of the original $49.5 billion investment. that's a $10 billion loss. twlech 2011 the treasury department sold its investment in chrysler. that total investment was $12.5 billion. taxpayers lost an estimated $1.3 billion after the sale. now, in all, treasury invested over $80 billion in the auto industry. center for automotive research estimates the taxpayer losses totalled about $13.7 billion. treasury officials say the goal was never to turn a